BADMINTON IN OFFALY: Birr girls come out tops in U-16 blitz

our Offaly schools travelled to Baldoyle Badminton Centre in Dublin for the U16 Post-Primary Leinster Schools’ Badminton Finals Blitz. St. Brendan’s CS girls and Cistercian College, Roscrea boys represented Offaly in Division 3 and Sacred Heart School, Tullamore girls and Colaiste Naomh Cormac boys represented the county in Division 2

St. Brendan’s CS: Eleven schools, divided into Pools of 4, 4, and 3, played in Division 3 girls. The St. Brendan’s team of Eabha McDowell, Siofra Ginty, Sarah Tierney, and Katie Standish and subs Kate O’Brien and Ciara Walshe, played in the pool of three. St. Brendan’s breezed through their two pool games, winning both matches 6-0 and the majority of the games by wide margins. Even though their semi-final opponents looked very strong in their Pool games, St. Brendan girls were on a roll and kept on rolling. St. Brendan’s only dropped one game, and that was touch and go until the last quarter of the game. In the final, they came up against a stone wall. Their opponents had looked really strong in their pool games, strong enough to be a Division 2 team, and so they proved in the final. Only two of the Birr players could batter holes in the wall big enough to score a win. On a scoreline of 4-2, St. Brendan’s team of Eabha McDowell, Siofra Ginty, Sarah Tierney and Katie Standish finished the Leinster Post-Primary Schools Division 3 Blitz as Runners-up, the only Offaly team to bring home medals.

Sacred Heart School, Tullamore: Like St. Brendan’s, Sacred Heart played in a Pool of three and that was all the entries in Division 2 Leinster Post-Primary School girls. Presentation College Kilkenny, were the first team Shannyn Healion, Shibani Venugopal, Avrit Rose Machado and Elizabeth Aubin met. Shibani ran her Presentation opponent very close before finally losing 27/30, but this was the best result Sacred Heart could generate. Holy Faith, Dublin were Sacred Heart’s second opponents. Shannyn led off for the Tullamore girls with a win. Holy Faith levelled the score with a win against Shibani. Avrit Rose pulled out all stops and put Sacred Heart ahead 2-1. Elizabeth fought hard, was very competitive in 4th singles, but finally lost, match score 2-2. When neither doubles pair could score a victory, Sacred Heart finished on the short end of a 4-2 scoreline. Kelly Shirley was the substitute for Sacred Heart School if any of the starting players needed to be replaced. Presentation, Kilkenny went on to defeat Holly Faith to win the Division 2 Leinster PP Girls competition.

Cistercian College Roscrea: Cistercian College, like Sacred Heart and St. Brendan’s were drawn into a Pool of three teams. Thirteen schools were in the competition. This was Cistercian’s first trip to the Leinster Post-Primary Schools finals and even though they didn’t come home with medals, they acquitted themselves well. De La Salle, Dundalk were the first school Cistercian’s faced. Eric Zhang got Cistercian College out of the blocks with a 30/22 win in 1st singles. Sam Maher, 2nd singles, and Sean Conway, 3rd singles, couldn’t hold the pace with their opponents and lost, but Thomas Gillman, 4th singles, stole his game on the last 2 points, 30/28. When Eric and Sam won 1st doubles 30/26, hopes were high for a Cistercian win, but those hopes were dashed when Sean and Thomas lost 30/19. In Leinster badminton, there must be a winner in every game, so with a 3-3 draw, total points were counted. De La Salle Dundalk were declared the winners, 166-144. Next up were Cross & Passion College, Kilcullen. Eric Zhang again led off with a win for Cistercian’s, by the score of 30/19. Sam Maher stuttered for his tem, losing 21/30. Sean Conway picked up the pace, winning 30/16. When Thomas Gillman’s opponent in 4th singles withdrew with an alleged injured ankle, Thomas was awarded a 30/0 walkover. Eric and Sam teamed up to win 1st doubles 30/16. The injured ankle miraculously recovered, but Sean and Thomas won 2nd doubles 30/15. When De La Salle, Dundalk defeated Kilcullen, they went into a semi-final, as only the first team in each of the four pools advanced to a semi-final, and Cistercian College went home knowing they had represented their school well in their first trip to a Leinster Finals Blitz.

Colaiste Naomh Cormac: Six teams were entered in Division 2 Boys, but only four presented on the day, so CNC played in a pool of four with the table toppers to be named Division 2 Boys’ winner. Schools opposing Colaiste Naomh Cormac were CBS Naas, Templeogue College, and St. Kieran’s College, Kilkenny. When Cian Dillon lost 1st singles to CBS Naas 21/5, things looked gloomy for CNC. Both Liam Kilmartin, 2nd, and Eoin Lambe, 3rd also lost, but both with improving scores. Eoin was behind 14/7 shortly after the 11 point sides change, but rallied and levelled the score at 17-all, went ahead 18/17, but lost the next point to Naas and couldn’t recover his momentum and lost 21/18. Stephen Newton finally put CNC on the winning side. He was ahead 11/6 at the changeover, let the game slip to 11/all and later 14/all before rallying to win 21/16. First doubles went the way of Naas, guaranteeing them the match win, but Eoin and Stephen put in a brilliant performance to win 21/14. St. Kieran’s Kilkenny, an often faced opponent in both badminton and hurling were next for Colaiste Naomh Cormac. Cian got off to a flying start and had 4 scores before his opponent got his first. Cian held the lead all the way to 8/5, and then his opponent started to change tactics and use more drops. Cian struggled, was passed out at 8/9, but stayed competitive, and stayed within striking distance before losing 21/19. Liam Kilmartin got another great start, was levelled at 6-all, went ahead again until 13-all, and then put on a surge, only allowing his opponent two more scores while he reached 21, 21/15 to Liam. Eoin and Stephen weren’t let reach the heights they had against Naas, and both lost 21/14. When Cian and Liam won first doubles 21/17, a draw was possible, but St. Kieran’s dashed that hope with a huge win in 2nd singles. Another 4-2 loss to CNC. The final opponents for CNC were Templeogue College, Dublin. Cian scored his first win of the day, 21/9. Liam had all his supporters on the edge of their seats as he fought for victory which he finally scored on the last stroke of his racquet, 21/20. Games were coming thick and fast now with at least 2 games always on court, so Ryan Moloney substituted for Stephen Newton who had been in hospital much of the previous 2 weeks. Ryan lost 4th singles. When Cian and Liam scored a 21/11 win in 1st doubles, CNC were guaranteed a match win, but Eoin and Ryan left no doubt in anyone’s mind who the winning school was, with a massive win in 2nd singles. Even though Colaiste Naomh Cormac finished 3rd of 4 schools in Division 2, there were no bronze medals, so they, like Sacred Heart and Cistercian College went home empty handed. St. Kieran’s played on to win Gold in Division 2 Boys.